Fitness Journey

In the beginning I was a 206lb "flabalicious" fat guy rapidly approaching the big 3-0. So, how am I doing? Today, about seven months in, I weighed 166.6lbs. Over the holidays I went back up to 178 lbs, but now I am working on reaching my goal of 159 lbs, 7% body fat, and a Ninja Warrior ready body.

Well by now anyone who watches the news has seen the latest strange twist in the Chris Benoit murder-suicide saga. Fox reported in an “Exclusive Story” that someone had posted news of Nancy Benoit’s death to Benoit’s Wikipedia entry some 13 hours before the bodies of Chris, Nancy, and Daniel were found by local authorities. Crazy huh?

It has already been revealed that Chris Benoit’s son Daniel had a disorder known as “fragile X.” That disorder is the leading cause of mental retardation (and “the most common genetic cause of autism” [See]). That disability may have played a role in Benoit’s choice to kill his son. If Benoit felt that his son, in his current state, couldn’t handle losing his father and mother, or that no one else could understand or take care of his son, it might have played a role in his decision to kill Daniel.

So here we are, several days later, and scientists have announced a major breakthrough:

US researchers have reversed the symptoms of mental retardation and autism in mice by inhibiting an enzyme that affects the connections between brain cells, researchers said Wednesday.

In a series of experiments on mice, the MIT investigators showed that they could undo the brain damage seen in a condition called Fragile X syndrome by inhibiting a key brain chemical called PAK. [1]